Now The Pain Begins

I have mixed feelings today.

I finally bit the bullet, opened my wallet and joined the local YMCA. It's an expense I'd rather not have but it's also something that I don't think I can go without.

Having lost over 150 pounds so far I'm thrilled with my results but simply cutting back on my food intake and walking many kilometres will only do so much. I needed to take that next step towards shaping the new me.

With that knowledge I joined the gym today. I'm not a fan of winter and the cold so this will allow me an opportunity to workout and walk inside. The treadmill is foreign to me but in time I'm sure I'll get a grasp of how to use it.

I've never been a "gym guy" so to speak. This goes back to my late teens when I used to visit another local fitness club semi-regularly and always found it to be kinda snobby. I always felt like people were looking at me and wondering why I was infringing on their gym experience and social group. The truth of the matter is I rarely talked to anyone when I was there other than people I knew or worked out with. So maybe those snobby people thought I was a snob as well. But I certainly didn't come from money like they did. We didn't travel in the same social or economic circles

New Under Armour Workout Gear

But having visited the YMCA a couple of times to check it out before joining I don't think that will be much of a concern. The people I've seen for the most part are just average everyday folks like myself and I think I'll fit right in.

My other concern was something that has always been an issue for me and that's acceptance. By this I mean having people looking at my large body and talking about me or pointing at me. Eventually this stopped bothering me because I stopped caring what others thought. Again, I don't think this will be a problem here. For one thing, I'm not quite as big as I used to be and I think people today in general are more accepting of overweight individuals making an effort to get healthy. The snobs are in the minority now. Kind of like Caucasians in Canada.

Even though its been over 20 years since I last used free weights or did any kind of real weight lifting and exercise of that type, I still remember the pain associated with using muscles I haven't strained in some time. That pain is not something I'm looking forward to but I know that eventually it will pass as I work through it. The thought of not being able to get out of bed without Advil doesn't excite me but what lies beyond that pain threshold does. The results of toning and tightening my ever shrinking and sagging body is something I look forward to.

So what do I hope to achieve?

One thing I don't care about is having big muscles although losing some of the flab and seeing some of the results would be nice. What I really want is to gain strength and hopefully continue to lose body fat both inside around my organs and on the visible surface.

During my walk through the gym today I spotted a couple of fit guys running on the treadmills. I'm a long way from being able to do that but perhaps one day I'll be able to increase the speed of my walk to a jog.

The facility also has a couple of pools which were busy today with it being a Sunday. I'm not sporting much of a beach body but I might be willing to try my hand at a few lengths of the pool if there aren't too many people around to begin with. A few of the girls in bikini's there today seemed comfortable so I suppose eventually I'll get more comfortable at some point.

Now it's just a matter of making the time to get to the gym for an hour or two each day or as often as possible and to begin the next step of my weight loss journey. My hope is that it will eventually become a routine and a regular part of my day that I plan my schedule around. It would be nice to have a workout buddy to help motivate me and keep me honest but I don't know anyone yet. But who knows, maybe I'll meet someone and we'll help push each other to reach our goals. Either way, I'm going to get the job done.

Closing In On My Goal

Time for another quick weight loss update.

After over 25 years of trying and failing to lose weight, this time things are going well.

I was asked by someone, what's the difference this time as opposed to my previous attempts? I don't have a clear cut answer but if I had to try and narrow it down it would probably just be my ability to stick to my plan. It's a simple plan and has worked for me.

1. Limit my daily calorie intake.
2. Remove all regular pop from my diet.
3. Exercise at least 5 days a week.

For the most part I have been able to stick to these three simple goals although I do have the odd day where I will eat a bit more than I should. The difference being that before I would do that and relapse into my old ways. This time if I do mess up I don't let it become a habit again. These changes have become more of a lifestyle change rather than a diet.

Latest progress comparison photo - profile view.

My daily calorie intake that I allow myself is 2000. That's not a lot compared to what I used to eat. The old me could easily eat 5000 or more calories a day. Heck, I could still do it today if I allowed myself to but that's where the willpower comes in. As I said, there are still days that I'll eat slightly more than 2000 calories but as long as I'm close and don't do it every day I can live with it.

I also try to cut out or at the very least cut down on the late night eating. When you work nights and sleep days, that isn't always possible. I'll have supper before I go to work and then I'll have a sandwich and snack at 1am. Not the greatest but it's still better than having fast food for lunch. Plus, you have to eat or your body will try to store fat because it thinks you need it. That's why it's better to eat several small meals and drink lots of water rather than one big meal a day.

The exercise I get is usually just in the form of walking. A typical walk could be anything from 3 to 12 kilometres depending on where I am and how energetic I feel. Plus in the summer I'm back to walking the golf course instead of taking golf carts. I'm proud of the fact that this summer I golfed over 40 times and not once did I rent a golf cart.

I've been talking about joining the local YMCA or a gym but as of yet haven't made that move. I want to but the membership fees have kept me from taking the plunge but I'm leaning towards biting the bullet and taking the financial hit soon. It's not a huge amount but $50 a month is still something I'm not thrilled about spending. But I suppose if I think about how much money I used to spend on fast food each month, it's probably a lot less. Plus, I'm still a big guy and have that big guy mentality that only fit people go to the gym and look down on bigger people. Perhaps times have changed.

As far as eliminating all regular pop from my diet, that was huge. I've talked about it before that I would drink a lot of pop every day and now that I think about how much sugar I was consuming, that change alone has gone a long way towards helping me to try and reach my goal.

And speaking of my goal, I'm getting closer to it. The whole point of this update was to just keep everyone that has been following and supporting my journey towards a healthier me up to date on my progress. So here are the numbers folks:

Starting Weight: 418.8 pounds

Current Weight: 266.4 pounds

Weight Lost To Date: 152.4 pounds

Original Goal: 250 pounds

So I'm only 16.4 pounds away from reaching the original goal I set when I began this quest. I am also now just 4.4 pounds away from reaching my high school football / rugby weight when I played my last year of Senior ball. And for the record, I have no plans to get back into a scrum anytime soon. I don't miss the ear biting and nipple pinching.

Does The iPhone 5S Exist?

Did I imagine Apple's big announcement?

I seem to recall a day about a month ago when Apple announced the highly anticipated and newest edition of their popular iPhone series, the iPhone 5S.

My memory isn't always the best so I can't say for sure that it really took place but I seem to remember some very specific details of the event. The new iPhone was to have fingerprint security, a new operating system, faster processor, upgraded camera and I think it can also be used to make a phone call.

Oddly enough, I can also remember visiting my local Bell Mobility store and adding my name to the waiting list the day before the new phone was to be released for sale. I didn't even care what colour phone I got as long as it was the 16GB version.

That was three weeks ago and to this day I'm still waiting for a phone call to tell me my phone has arrived and I can finally upgrade from my current iPhone 4 which is quickly becoming obsolete thanks to all of the most recent app updates. Apple also seems hell bent on forcing me to upgrade my iPhone 4 to the latest iOS 7 which apparently doesn't really play well with these older phones. I'm glad I didn't upgrade it or I'd likely have no phone at all while Apple or Bell force me to play the waiting game.

So, who's to blame for this?

Did Apple underestimate the demand for the new phone and release it to the public prior to being able to meet that demand? Did they do this on purpose knowing their product is so good that consumers will gladly wait to eventually get their hands on it? Did Steve Jobs demise result in a company being left with no real leader capable of getting the job done properly?

Maybe Bell Mobility is to blame. Perhaps they failed to realize that so many of their customers would be ready to make the move to the newest trinket produced by Apple and their order country wide was woefully mismanaged. Or maybe I'm not bitching enough in person to the staff at my local Bell store and those that are complaining are actually getting the iPhone's that were meant for me.

Whatever the reason, I'm getting quite frustrated and I know for a fact that both Apple and Bell Mobility really couldn't give a rats ass about my frustration. They're both huge, successful companies and I'm just one meaningless individual who they know will gladly hand over my money to them once it finally becomes available. Maybe they're just holding off on sending it to me until just before Christmas and will give it to me as a present for free. Ya right, like that will happen. I'm sure I won't even see any kind of discount for being forced to wait this long.

UPDATE: Finally gave up waiting for Bell to give me a call and bought my new phone at Best Buy Oct. 25th. So far I love it. It's a huge jump from my old iPhone 4. I got the Gold one in case you were wondering.

Pound by Pound & Inch by Inch

It's been almost a month since my last quick update on my progress in the battle to shrink myself to a respectable size. So I figured I'd take a few moments today to bring you up to speed on where things stand as of today.

The last month I've actually done a pretty good job of staying active and walking almost every day which hasn't necessarily resulted in pleasant results during my visits to the scale but I have been noticing some changes in my body.

I'm still big but my body shape is changing.

For example my thighs have started to shrink. I hadn't measured them in quite some time but the last time I lashed the tape measure around them the other day they had decreased by four inches each. I used to be 32 inches around the thighs and I'm currently at 28 inches and can actually start to see some separation between them which I'm thrilled about. Less chaffing is a good thing. I've always been big in the legs, both my thighs and calves, even as a child so I'm not expecting miracles to happen there but any reduction will be a positive result.

I haven't measured around my waist lately but I can tell you those size 46 jeans I purchased several weeks back are already feeling loose on me and my belt has already had one new hole punched in it and will likely need another one very soon or my pants will be around my ankles as I'm reaching for something on a high shelf at Walmart.

When it comes to my eating, which is what got me in the mess I was in to begin with, every day continues to be a struggle but I win the battle most days. I still limit myself to 2000 calories per day which I think is pretty reasonable. I'm still eating what I like but one thing I have tried to change in my daily routine is not counting my calories burned towards my calorie intake. For example, if I walked 8 kilometres and burned 1000 calories, I would look at that and say I have an extra 1000 calories I can eat that day. So in fact, I would be eating a total of 3000 calories a day instead of my allotted 2000. Now I'm only eating up to or around the 2000 calories a day no matter what I burn exercising. I think this will help aid my weight loss more and hopefully diminish the frequency of plateaus. We'll see how that works.

So where do I stand with my overall weight loss?

My starting weight was 418.8 pounds and as of today's trip to the scale, my current weight stands at 269.5 pounds. That's a total of 149.3 pounds lost so far.

My goal weight when I started was and still is 250 pounds so I'm currently 19.5 pounds away from reaching it. Surprisingly I am also just 7.5 pounds away from getting back to the weight I was when I played high school football many many years ago. I'm thrilled by this progress and the idea of actually attaining my goal but when I began my journey I jokingly stated that I would run naked in the street if I ever reached that goal. My neighbours should be on alert that as I get closer they might want to keep their blinds closed and children inside.

Amazing Autumn...So Far

Aging Beacon
Originally uploaded by *Bundy*

After what I considered to be a pretty rotten summer for weather it sure is nice to finally be getting some decent conditions for Fall.

The summer in my opinion wasn't nearly as warm overall as I would have liked. Sure we had some hot days in the 30's but not many for sure. That's not to say that I like those days a lot. Ideally I prefer daytime highs around 26-28 degrees Celsius. But of course our weather doesn't come with a thermostat we can adjust. We have to take what we're given.

Luckily, so far this September and early October has been awesome. We've had some cool nights sitting around the campfire but overall the highs during the days have been in the low to mid-20's which is fantastic.

The other day was one of those toasty days, certainly warmer than I have come to expect from October. I was out for a walk with my camera trying to get some exercise and hoping to take some photos of almost anything.

I was walking along the shore of Lake Ontario and came up on the Presqu'ile Lighthouse. Now I've photographed this particular nighttime beacon many times in the past. Too many to count in fact, so the though of taking another photo of it really didn't cross my mind. I have photos from almost every angle and direction.

One shot I didn't have was from the water. In the winter I'd taken photos by walking out on the ice and hoping I didn't fall through but I'd never gone out in the water to grab a shot.

This being October, I wasn't too keen on the idea of getting wet even though it was a warm day. The lake was quite cold all summer so the idea of taking off my shoes and wading out into the water didn't really interest me at first.

Knowing I'd dry quickly on this particular day I took off my sandals and started to make my way off shore. At first the water was very cold on my feet and the shock nearly sent me back but after a few moments and once my feet were accustomed to the temperature, or numb, it wasn't too bad. Better than I expected.

So out I strolled along the flat rock to a point where the water was up to my knees and I could get a clear shot of the lighthouse.

The sun was starting to drop in the late afternoon sky which gave great light from this angle and also provided some reflection on the water.

I tried several different shots both wide, tight, horizontal and portrait but the images that I liked the most were when I held the camera just above the water level. This gave the impression you were looking out of the water and the small waves were more visible in the foreground.

After about 25 minutes in the lake and waiting for other people to move out of my shot away from the lighthouse I was able to get some good images that I was pleased with, the one above being one of them. I think it turned out pretty good.